Fun At Kasadya Sa SRP

If you are like me who loves carnival, then I think you must visit Cebu City's Kasadya Sa SRP before it's too late!

Wait, what is it?

Kasadya Sa SRP is local amusement park located at South Road Properties of Cebu City. Thus, explained its name as to why it is called like so. It is composed of different carnival rides, food stalls, game booths and mini bazaars. This runs from the month of December up to February of each year. And the most pleasing reason as to why you must visit is the very affordable entrance fee and ride fees.

Welcome!

Itinerary, expenses and fun!

It's been a while since I last went out with my sister due to conflicting work schedules we both have. Luckily, our free time crossed one day in January 2017, just before the grandest Sinulog festival, and we finally got to try out the rides and fun at Kasadya sa SRP.

1. Dinner at Colon.
My treat because I am a generous elder sister haha! (200 pesos)

2. Rode 10F jeepney going to Mambaling.
Fare was ten pesos each. Her treat because I forced her, lol. (20 pesos)
We chose jeepney over taxi and Uber because we wanted to save money, hehe. Besides, we both had our free time for ourselves that night and not to mention we wanted to have some bonding moments, too. It was a joyful ride with her because we talked about anything we saw inside and outside the vehicle. What could I say? We are sisters so somehow we think a lot like at some point.

3. Rode motorcycle with not-so-fancy helmet.
My turn to treat her. Fare was 25 pesos for the each of us. (50 pesos)
We went there around 7:00 - 8:00 P.M. in the evening so we liked the cool breeze of air during our habal-habal trip.

4. Arrived at Kasadya sa SRP.
Entrance fee was 25 pesos for each individual. Clearly affordable on my sister's pocket so she treated me :) (50 pesos)
Rain showers welcomed us upon arrival. Yeah, it was raining but not that heavy.

5. Exciting rides.
When we enter the park, variety of colorful lights that gave chills, excitement and big smiles.
We didn't know where to start first so we just looked for those rides that has many people lining up and then took on the challenge. Fee was 50 pesos per ticket per person for a 3-minute ride. (Total of 600 pesos for both of us)

Galactic
Many people were lining up in the ticket booth. This made us curious so we lined up, too. In this ride, we stood up until the end. No worries because there's huge metal bracket around our chest area for protection. We couldn't move our feet for they're heavy. It felt like we were inside of a blender. After around 2 minutes, the machine would tilt for about 45 degrees. We saw the ground up side down. So cool! Thanks to Sir Isaac Newton's Centrifugal Force (a force directed away from the center) we didn't fall. This was our first ride and we definitely loved it it!

Viking
This is absolutely 100% better and a very good upgraded version of our childhood swing! In this ride, we sat and went crazy every time it reached on each end.

Lantern Wheel
This was same as the typical Ferris Wheel we always tried during fiesta in our place. We went crazy again with this ride. Whenever it fell from the top, it almost made me throw up really hard; good thing I didn't.

Spider
This was our favorite! In fact, we rode here twice. In this ride, we sat on a crazy rotating chair while the machine rotated it. Sounds insane I know!

Bumble Bee
This ride was for kids. It's safe and there's no breathtaking adventures here compared to the previous rides we tried.

Super Twister
This was the second favorite ride of my sister. In this ride, we sat on separate single swings while rotating around. This one was very cool. I felt like a flying bird because I saw roofs all over and the people on the ground looked so tiny already. Clearly, I was meters away from the ground. Saddest and funniest part was I literally almost threw up after this ride!
My sister and I almost lost our lungs and spirits during this adventure but we wanted more of it soon.

6. Tricky game booths.

Ball game - you bet on cards which you think the ball will land.

Throw your coin and if it lands perfectly to the squares, you win the prize that the square promise.

Shoot one toy and if it falls, you win a prize!

Firing yeah. Bull's eye? No problem, one awesome prize for you!

7. Food stall.
We ate at pungko-pungko but was not able to take a picture. So here's an ice cream instead.

Cheers!

We arrived at Kasadya Sa SRP around 8:30 PM in the evening and we went home at 2:00 AM. Our total expenses for this adventure was around 1000 pesos.

Tips:
1. Bring umbrella and handkerchief with you.
2. You will enjoy best if you have companion whom you can talk to about anything under the sun.
3. If you are going to follow our road trip, it will take almost an hour of your time. You may ride taxi, Uber or even Mybus from SM City Mabolo going to SM Seaside, then ride a taxi or motorcycle going to Kasadya sa SRP.
4. Kasadya Sa SRP's floor is soil and not concrete cement. If it rains, expect chocolates on your feet :)
5. Don't eat first before the rides. You will threw up!
6. If you want to play games, expect to lose.
7. The operators inside are so friendly. Please wear a smile whenever possible. :)

BLOG YOUR HEART OUT: Blogging Essentials and Tips

Who would have thought I could inspire a few people with my passion? This was the happy question I asked myself that one night after I received an invitation to be a speaker for Passerelles Numeriques Talk at University of San Carlos – Talamban Campus.

A newbie blogger.

I am a total beginner when it comes to blogging. I officially started writing last January 1, 2017 as part of my New Year’s Resolution - to stop procrastination whenever possible. That is equivalent to one month of experience as to this writing. Though I have written a few posts last year, those just served as a test or somehow like a glimpse for myself of what was the feeling to own a free blogspot site and explore some cool templates available in various styles.

I was a member of our school publication when I was in High School. I admit I didn't love writing that much because I just didn’t know how to express what I wanted to share. I was very unproductive. There was one time that my article got published on one of the releases. I was happy (though it was located at the very end with a very small font, looked like it was not that eye-catching and important, lol.)

I created my blogsite without the help of somebody but Google and Youtube. The process was just easy and self-explanatory. I chose blogspot because I felt I got to use this Google product, lol, after all, I worked at GDG Cebu so it would be appropriate to use it, nah just kidding. I've made some tweaks on the XML code and I enjoyed it a lot.

Why me?

Talks at PN is a monthly event initiated by Passerelles Numériques Philippines, where speakers from different backgrounds share their “PNspiring” knowledge, skills and experiences with students, staff, alumni and French volunteers. The overarching objective of this event is the convergence of ideas.

Talks at PN enables various ideas to meet in order to have a high creative impact among the attendees. Thus, as side-effects they become “Inspired, Engaged & Enthusiastic” with their respective personal mission and ambition.

December 5, 2016 - sir Clark messaged me if I have a blogger friend who could do the “talk”. I said to him I would find one. It was holiday season and I was caught up with my busy schedule and other activities so I kind of forgot the request.

January 5, 2017 - He emailed me and this time he was asking if I can do the “talk”. I was really surprised!

Invitation email

I was hesitant at first because I’m a newbie. Nevertheless, I said Yes! because I wanted to do the talking :) ;) One thing I learned from the movies I watched is to never say no to opportunities. And thinking that hopefully I could inspire others, so there's no reason to say “no”. And besides, it’s a great way to start the year right.

The time has come for the “Talk” session.

January 28, 2017 at 8:00 A.M. was the moment of truth for me to burst my ideas on stage. I arrived at the venue earlier than eight in the morning so that I could familiarize the place and eliminate the feeling of nervousness inside. I have also spoken to the crowd before in the exact place so I guess that helped me to calm down, too. My topic was about Blog Your Heart Out: Blogging Essentials and Tips.

Yay, early bird us!

Rigney Hall - the venue :)

She is DJ (EMCEE). She welcomed and introduced me to the audience as if I won the lottery!

Duration of the talk: 1 hour (discussion) and 15 minutes (question and answer session).

Main agenda:

1. What is a blog?
2. Why do it?
3. How to start?
4. What are the keypoints to consider?
5. The 5H characteristics to successful blogging. (Credits to Mr. Lai for allowing me to include this.)
6. When to start?

Link of my powerpoint presentation here.

The questions (as far as I can remember).

I only include 4 questions in this post.

1. What free blog platforms do you recommend?

- I recommend 2 most known platforms which are Blogspot and Wordpress.com. There are also other free platforms that you can choose if you want just like Weebly, Wix, etc.

2. Is it really necessary to buy a domain name for your blog?

- This depends on what your plan is.

No, it is not necessary to buy a domain name for your blog if you just write occasionally.

Yes, it is necessary to buy a domain name if you really want to focus on blogging and if you want to make a name out there. Having your own domain name is ‘professional’ in a sense that mostly, advertisers and brands will be so keen in partnering with you. Also, they do not take some time to type. Think: emelieempire.blogspot.com versus empireempire.com – the second one is better, right?

3. What was my inspiration to blog?

- First, this is part of my New Year's Resolution. Second, I love the idea that I own a collection of my memories online that I can browse/read when I get old. Imagine sitting in my balcony with my gray hair, sipping coffee while holding a tab on the other hand and browsing the happy memories I had when I was young. I perhaps can share about how awesome my life was when i was younger to my grand kids! Lastly, my breakup with my ex motivates me to write. What can I do? I need to keep myself as busy as I can in order to smooth out my moving on process.

4. Is it necessary to create categories/Pages in your blog?

Yes, it is. In this way, you are tiding up your blog and it will be easy for your readers to navigate on which topic they want to read.

Giving of certificate. Oops, where am I looking?

The wonderful students and my sweet friends :*

Yay, groufie! :D

After the event, I toured myself in USC-TC's beautiful scenery. It's been a while since I've been there and there were lots of changes :)

TEASER for Blog Your Heart Out: Blogging Essentials and Tips

See you! You may check out my presentation here.

Full details about this event will be up within any day of February 2017. Stay tuned!

Finally, A Song Entitled EMELIE

Did you know that there is a song entitled "EMELIE"? I'm so happy about it because that is my precious first name haha! Plus, the spelling is just so the same. I am usually a victim of name-murdering because it gets misspelled almost all of the time but this singer is just soo cool for me. I got vanity level 999! I'm now smiling from ear to ear :D

“Emelie” by Filous & MOUNT feat. Buster Moe is a beautiful, heart-wrenching song featuring vocals alongside a knee-slapping beat and tons of harmonica. It kind of sounds like the great open country, but it packs a big synthetic kick, and therefore dutifully club ready.

Filous says, "Every once in a while, you start working on a song where everything just seems to come together in the most natural way possible. Every time that happens, it feels incredibly exciting and special! That's exactly what happened with this song.”

"Emelie" gets official release on Ultra records last Friday, Aug. 19, 2016.

The lyrics:

Nothing's gonna change the way I feel for you Emelie

Used to get me high just running trough your fields in ecstacy

Everybody laughed and everybody talked about you and me

But nothings gonna change the way I feel for you Emelie

For you Emelie

I've been on the road writing all the words to you melodies

Skippin' out of vans you told me be the best that I can be

But now you not around when all I need is your energy

Still nothings gonna change the way I feel for you Emelie

For you Emelie

I'm higher than a mountain frozen on the shore

Party in the Hamptons I just miss u more

Maybe we could be together in another life

Shout out to Angelyn aka "Gelai" (from thetangledangel.wordpress.com) for letting me know this song on one calm midnight. I so love it!

My Sinulog 2017 Adventure

Sinulog Festival 2017 is indeed my most unforgettable sinulog event ever!

Cebu City is known for its grandest festival every January of the year known as Sinulog. Sinulog is the traditional and ritual celebration in honor of baby Jesus called Santo Niño. It is associated with religious activities, street dance, colorful costumes, fireworks shows, happiness and party-rockin' (for some young-blood-youth). Everybody is excited about it. But as for me, way back when I was still in college and just newly working in the corporate world, when I heard it, there seemed to be nothing that I feel - no excitement, no adrenaline rush in me, just nothing. I guess because I am not originally from Cebu, or I am not just that much of an outgoing person before. Huhu, now I feel sorry for myself.

Luckily, that changes this year because in general, although there are little not so good happenings too, I have a very happy and memorable Sinulog together with my sister and friends.

The following are the stuff I did:

1. Henna tattoo on my arms.
I know some people got an eww reaction towards this because it is dirty, well sort of. But for me, I opted to have it on my arms because I just want to have a little taste of the tribal tradition we had before. Plus, it is better to have this fake tattoo rather than the permanent one because this will just fade and gone after 2 weeks. So, yeah I flaunt my feather fake tatoo, haha!

My henna for this year is gonna be about feathers because HOPE is a thing associated with it. #Sinulog2017

2. Tour at Colon Street.
Most roads at colon were closed so it’s a good time to walk with my sister and taste popular street foods that Colon is famous of.

Same face (sort of) with my sister. She's the one holding the camera.

Ice cream is life!

3. Wanderlust at Cebu City’s Fuente and Jones streets.
There were several small stalls in these streets selling stuff (related to Sinulog and Cebu itself) in a very affordable price. Who wouldn’t want that?

Fashion ring for only 50 pesos each!

4. Paintensity party fever.
Though I was not able to party inside the venue because it was full of party people already, I still managed to sort of blend with the crowd and enjoyed the party at the 3rd floor of the Greenery building. Guess what, I had a 360 degree view of the event! Awesome! (This is before the stampede . Story here.)

Party people wanna do some party rockin'!

5. Fireworks show at SM City Cebu and Ayala Center Cebu.
Fireworks competition and Pyrospectacular fireworks display in SM City were overwhelming. Plus the Dragon fireworks display at Ayala literally took my breath away! I wish life could be this colorful and joyful all year round!

6. Immersed myself with E-commerce summit.
Super thankful to sir Ruben Liceria for inviting us to the said event. This was supposed to be with fee, but since I was one of the lucky bloggers who got invited, it was given to me free of charge. Details of the event can be found here.
This event happened last January 14, 2017 8AM to 5PM. I’m so thankful because I learned a lot during this.

Now, tell me who is productive during this very busy sinulog week? - ME!

7. Sinulog T-Shirt with pride.
Your sinulog will not be complete if you cannot wear sinulog T-shirt. Come on, it is just once in a year. Go get yourself one ;) As for me, I bought my super cute t-shirt at Island Souvenirs in Ayala at a very affordable price of Php199 pesos. It was a struggle buying it as there were also lots of people doing the same, but it was also very fun. I saw happy faces everywhere.

8. Put on fancy head dress.
Because who wouldn’t want some fancy decors in the head during this colorful festival?

9. Survived the paint war at the Baseline.
This was the most fun experience I had. Random strangers putting face paints all over myself- my body, my tshirt, my neck, everywhere! Worst was my sister’s face was slapped with thick blue paints. She almost couldn’t see and she looked so ugly. We both laughed so hard and nevermind it because we may look like chaka or wasted what’s important was we enjoyed.
I was also wearing my sparkling white t-shirt during this and I ended up looking very dirty with paints everywhere. It was so fun. Every memory I had during this experience was really worth it not to mention this was my FIRST time doing this!

The survivors, yeah!

10. Kasadya sa SRP with my sister.
My sister and I almost lost our hearts, our voices and our lungs in Kasadya sa SRP's rides! Whoah so fun and nerve-wrecking!

My sister is happy because she gets libre from ate haha!

11. I prayed wholeheartedly.
Last but not the least, Sinulog is time for our devotion to the baby Jesus. I may not able to go to church due to some personal issues, but I was able to pray wholeheartedly and talk to God solemnly. And for me, that is precious. (By the way, I pray everyday :) )

Aja!

That is my Sinulog story, what’s yours? ;)

Pocherong Malamian only at Pochero Kinaraan

"Kinsa ang ganahan mokaon ug pochero? I-isa ang kamot!".
Cebuano people are known to be pochero lovers. I said that because almost all of my officemates and friends love this kind of food. When you mention this, everybody wants to taste it.

As for me, at first, I honestly don't know that much about what pochero is. I just remember eating it many times but I just forget its name. Don't get me wrong, I have no care of food names because I just eat them anyway and I am happy, haha! I guess I should change that behavior this year.

So much for that, my friends invited me to join them while they plan to try out this newly opened pocherohan in Mabolo, Cebu City. My experience was very good and therefore, I will recommend it to you, too.

If you are in Cebu City, you should definitely try Pochero Kinaraan located at F.Gochan Street, Mabolo, near Sol Cafe and Cebu Indian Hindu Temple. They opened last January 19, 2017 and since then, they started serving mouth-watering pochero and other foods such as scallops, shrimp, tinolang manok bisaya, crabs, buntog, and many more!
I love the "lutong-bahay" and super-busog feels they offer to their customers. Plus, while they cook, you can smell the lafangan spirit. Two-thumbs up!

Pochero Kinaraan front view.

Pochero

Crabs

Shrimps

Scallops

Menu and prices. They have rice and corn as well!

Trivia: Pochero or Puchero is a Filipino dish which can be beef meat or chicken meat and different varieties of vegetable cooked in a stew. This was originally from Spain that means "stewpot".

Bon appetit!

You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown in SM City, Cebu Philippines

"Happiness is morning and evening, daytime and night-time too. Happiness is anyone, and anything at all, that's loved by you."
To those of you who are great fans of Snoopy and Charlie Brown in the comic strip Peanuts, make sure to block your calendars in either of these dates, February 17 - 18 - 19, 2017, because these beloved and adorable characters, together with the whole squad, are coming to life in SM City Cebu, Cinema 1!

The Vaudeville Theatre Company, one of the newest musical theatre companies in Cebu Philippines, and Create Cebu are proud to present to each of us "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown". This is a 2- hour broadway musical based on the popular comic strip Peanuts by Charles Schultz, with book, music and lyrics by Clark Gesner. In this musical theater play, bossy Lucy is hopelessly in love with a piano prodigy Schroeder who doesn't give her the time of the day, perfectionist Sally is still mocking blanket-toting Linus, Snoopy is in the doghouse, and "blockhead" himself Charlie Brown, is in rare form.

The script features new songs, particularly funny dialogue, and new catchy orchestrations.

Take a look at these teasers:

Where is the venue and how much is the ticket?

The cute tickets :)

Where to buy?

1. Vaudeville Theatre Company office
- located at Ground Floor, Tango Plaza Bldg. (in front of Redemptorist Church), Queens Road, Cebu City. Mondays to Saturdays 10:00 am until 7:00 pm only.

2. Shakey's Pizza Branches - ( For Matinee Free Seating Tickets ).
IT Park • SM City Cebu • Ayala Center Cebu • Robinsons Cyber Gate Cebu

The Cast

Charlie Brown / Roy - Rey Jee Albino and Gabriel Gomez

Schroeder / Franklin - Jed Nicole Alerta and Jake Keanu Batiancela

Linus / Rerun - Micahel Joel Ardoña and Peter Clark Guisadio

Sally Peppermint Patty - Pamela Estalilla and Brazilia Francesca Valdez

Snoopy / Shermy - Jomar Gomez and Les Paul Pineda

Frieda - Clouie Monsanto

Lucy / Marcie - Tiffany Louise Neri and Gayle Marie Sinadjan

Pigpen - Jef-Jef Saagundo

Lila - Anna Carla Marie Sanders

Patty - Kristelle Anne Tuastumban

Red Headed Girl - Sara Ann Phoebe Valiente

The Creative Team

Penelop N. Ong - Artistic Director, Founder of Vaudeville Theatre Co.

Vincent Paul Diez Gaton - Dance Director

Jude Gitamondoc - Music Director

The Production Team

Alfie Mosqueda - Production Manager

Malaya Gualiza Macaraeg - Stage Manager

Marco J. Malait - Assistant Stage manager

Gina Juan - Speech Coach

I am the Blue alien among the Yellow cast! :D

Proudly presented in cooperation with OurOku Corporation, Chevrolet, Island Premium Paints, West Palawan Premiere and Premiere Horizon Alliance.

Sponsored by Asaka Geosolutions Inc. and Shakey's Pizza with the help of A Space Cebu, Heislord, Pacific Traders, Sun Star, Magic 92.3 and Selecta. With special thanks to Freshco, Hesreal, Nonki, Zero Three Two, Colours, Jcentre Mall and Haiper Apps Corporation.

See you and don't miss out the fun!